The Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is urging people to personally engage Congress about Syria and to pray.
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Contact your Senators and Representatives TODAY to oppose U.S. military action against Syria. Here’s how.
The National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon has asked for help (PDF).
PC(USA) church partners support call for no military action in Syria. Read more.
Watch "Update on Syria,” a webinar to hear from global partners and colleagues from Syria, Presbyterian World Mission staff and Gradye Parsons Tuesday, recorded Sept. 10 at 1 p.m.
Hello my name is Gradye Parsons. I’m the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and I come to you out of my concern for Syria and out of the church’s concern for Syria, and out of the concern for our government’s intervention into that troubled land.
The General Assembly meeting in Pittsburgh, Penn. last summer in 2012 made the following statements about this Syrian crisis.
- To support a mediated process of the cessation of violence by all perpetrators,
- To call for outside parties to cease all forms of intervention in Syria,
- To support a necessary and strong role for the United Nations, and
- To refrain from military intervention in Syria
Yesterday I received a letter from the General Secretary of the General Synod of the Synod of Syria and Lebanon, and he writes, “We urge the international powers to refrain from the use of power against Syria, as any strike from the U.S.A. or any other power will only multiply the suffering and the human destruction. We appeal to all who are able, by the name of the God of love, to help bring violence to an end. Help the Syrians to come together and together build a new Syria.”
Based on his letter and our concern I’m writing as a person, as an individual, to my Congress people – my representative and my two senators – urging them to consider the voices of the people of Syria and the voices of other people about how we should best go about giving our gifts as Americans best intentions of bringing peace to that land and bringing peace that’s a long lasting peace; a peace of reconciliation and a peace of long last relationships. I’m also asking you to hear the call from the Pope Francis to make this weekend a special weekend of prayer for the people of Syria, and I’m asking you to join me now in prayer for the people of Syria and for our Congress as we deliberate carefully about the best way to bring hope and peace to that land.
Let us pray. Dear Lord we thank you for your gifts that you give to us, the gift of grace and of hope and of reconciliation, and we pray for the people of Syria and we pray for the people in our Congress, that they may deliberate carefully about the best way forward so that peace may come to that troubled land, in Jesus name, Amen.